Iran slams Trump over UN Security Council plans

Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump of trying to hijack the United Nations Security Council for the purposes of "bullying others" to turn against Tehran.

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MANDEL NGAN, AFP

Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump of trying to hijack the United Nations Security Council for the purposes of "bullying others" to turn against Tehran.

Trump plans to lead a meeting of the heads of state of the Security Council on Iran in late September, his envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, announced Tuesday.

With the United States now holding the presidency of the Security Council, Haley said the aim was to put further pressure on Tehran over its alleged violations of council resolutions.

But Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, hit out at the US plan.

"There's only one UNSC resolution on Iran...@realDonaldTrump is violating it & bullying others to do same," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

"Now he plans to abuse presidency of SC to divert a session— item devoted to Palestine for 70 yrs — to blame Iran for horrors US & clients have unleashed across (Middle East) #chutzpah."

Washington has sought to build up international pressure on Iran after reimposing tough, unilateral sanctions on August 7 and setting a November 5 deadline for halting Iran's oil exports.

Those moves came after the United States decided in May to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying it failed to do enough to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons and stop its ballistic missile programme.

In reaction to the reimposition of sanctions, Iran demanded in The Hague that the top UN court suspend the unilateral US sanctions.

Europe has resisted joining the US sanctions move, but this week Japanese media said Tokyo had agreed to suspend crude imports from Iran.